Friday, November 5, 2010

YES YES YES!!!

Today was THE day. The day Jeremy and I have practically pulling out our hair trying to reach for the past two years. Today, Elijah read a book. Anyone on the outside would probably be thinking, didn't he just celebrate his 8th birthday? Shouldn't he be reading already? If it was any of my other kids, I would agree, but not with Elijah. If you know my family, then you know we've struggled with him from day 1. Ever since we pulled Elijah from school, I've wrestled with my decision There is so much risk that he'll just get overlook and lost in the "system" at public school, but then there's that constant nagging feeling that I might not know how to teach a child like him. This year though, I tossed out "traditional" schooling for him. Last year was so hard, and I wasn't going to put any of us through it again. In place of stacks of books, we gave him a Leapster system. On day one I could see we made a good choice because he was getting excited again about learning. (that is the foundation to a successful education, in my opinion) The only workbook I ordered for him this year was a language arts book, which we do in a group lesson with Bella. Today their lesson included a long list of words, and they had to find the match. After the assignment was complete, I asked Bella to please read me the list of words. Elijah quickly joined in, and I asked Bell to stop so we could hear Elijah. To the surprise and amazement of us all, he read the entire page correctly. Not long after I handed him a small book for beginning readers, and he read the entire thing without help! This is exactly what we needed to kick start our school year in the right direction. How fantastically awesome!

On another happy reading note...... Yesterday Genna started a new book. The title escapes me, but I know it was a Halloween mystery book. (that girl loves a good mystery) I asked her to read a chapter before bed, and told her she could go read in my room so it would be quiet. A while later I went to check on her, and she had already read three chapters and begged me to let her read one more. I said OK, but that she had to go to bed right after. She obeyed and went to bed, but about 45 minutes later came out of her room saying she couldn't sleep because she couldn't stop thinking about her book and could she pleeeaaassseeee read a tiny bit more. I figured she didn't have anywhere to be in the morning, so why not? I wasn't all that surprised when a bit over an hour later she came and said she finished the entire book! It actually made me laugh a bit because I remember when I was her age and would read an entire book in a day when I had to spend time at my parent's store. (or would use a flashlight to read in bed) I love that she loves to read, and I hope she never loses that passion.